Friends, relatives and colleagues are set to arrive this weekend to remember the life of William Martin, the revered Lake Forest College science professor who guided thousands of students over a teaching career that spanned over 50 years.
A celebration of Martin’s life is set for Oct. 19 at the school where he attempted to channel his love of chemistry to the succeeding generations.
“He just loved working with the students and encouraging them to find their passion in life,” his wife Yvonne Martin said.
Martin, 97, died on August 8 due to heart-related issues in Waukegan, according to his family.
Born in York, Pennsylvania, Martin’s fascination with chemistry took hold in high school.
“He was very impressed with the demonstration of his high school teacher converting elemental sulfur to sulfuric acid. He decided that is what he wanted to do,” Yvonne Martin said.
After high school graduation, Martin was drafted into the U.S. Navy working as an electrician during World War II. Following the war, he resumed his chemistry studies at York Junior College on his way toward getting a bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College and then earning a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
With his advanced degree in place, Martin started working as a medicinal chemist at Abbott Laboratories in the late 1950s. He achieved early success by working with Yvonne, he eventually received a patent for Pargyline, a drug used for hypertension.
While at Abbott Labs, Martin started teaching night courses at Lake Forest College and eventually was offered a full-time position at the school, as he was intrigued by the idea of teaching.
“It was what he wanted to do,” Yvonne Martin said.
Often seen in a white shirt, brown shoes, beige pants, and beige lab coat, Martin taught science at Lake Forest College for more than 50 years. School officials believe he instructed more than 2,000 organic chemistry students and biochemistry to hundreds of others. He also directed more than 65 senior theses.
Yvonne Martin noted her husband wanted to see women succeed, at a time they often faced challenges in the workplace.
“He especially helped women students maneuver through the male hierarchy,” she said.
Among the many students Martin worked with included Elizabeth Fischer who studied under Martin in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“He was able to take the student and not give up on that person,” Fischer remembered. “The gift of that is that he accepted everyone as they were and helped them to see their own gifts. He didn’t just work with the good students, he worked with everyone at their own level so they could reach their own potential.”
Fischer embarked on a similar career path and today is a senior lecturer in chemistry at Lake Forest College. For more than 30 years, she often collaborated with her former teacher as Martin would teach biochemistry and Fischer would work with students in the lab.
She marveled at the way Martin guided aspiring scientists.
“He had the ability to look at each student and if the student had individual strengths, he knew how to develop them,” Fischer said.
She added Martin constantly advocated for students to take on new roles to advance in the classroom.
“If you stay the same you are not going to see growth, so what kind of changes do you want to make to get to where you want to go,” Fischer remembered Martin telling students.
When Martin retired in 2016, the school named an advanced chemistry laboratory at the Lillard Science Center in honor of Martin.
On a personal side, the Martins settled in Waukegan and stayed there throughout his career where they raised their two daughters.
“We appreciated the economic and cultural diversity,” Yvonne Martin said.
Away from work, he loved to fly gliders and was a patron of the arts including being a season ticket holder to both the Goodman Theatre and the Lyric Opera.
Survivors include Yvonne, his wife of 60 years, and daughters Margaret Anne Martin and Gita Catherine Brown and her husband, Paul.
The celebration of his life is scheduled for Oct. 19 at the Lillard Science Center.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
